The Rivanna Rambler

January 8, 2009

The City of Charlottesville, along with Albemarle County, UVA, and PVCC, are all submitted renewal applications for the Virginia Stormwater Management Program (VSMP) General Permit for Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4’s).  The permit describes how these entities will manage stormwater in their jurisdictions, but much of the management really rests on you and me and how we manage the stormwater that we create because of our modern lifestyle.

 

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Chilling, cold, welcome, seasonal.  These words could all describe the precipitation of the last couple of days.  Cold and chilling, as temperatures hovered below freezing, icing roads and dusting the Blue Ridge white.  Welcome, and seasonal, since we rely on wintertime precipitation to keeps our rivers and wells flowing, our groundwater replenished, our reservoirs full and to hold off the press of drought.

But this water – mostly clean as transits from clouds to earth – becomes something else once it hits our streets, yards, and houses.  It becomes storm water – and it is hardly benign. 

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December 18, 2008

Learning to identify trees is the business of the amateur naturalist — and these days, one that includes learning about and spreading the word about invasive pests that are threatening whole species, such as the Emerald Ash Borer.

Last weekend I took a short walk along the scrubby and thinly buffered banks of the Rivanna near Free Bridge with some fellow Master Naturalists.  We were out to hone our tree identification skills – best done, I’ve found, after the fall of leaves when one is forced to use the most reliable tools of branching, bark, and leaf scar shape to confirm the ID.

Land disturbance and compaction at this site along the river has been pretty much uninterrupted

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December 11, 2008

 

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This show originally aired on December 11, 2008  on “The Rivanna Rambler,” a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net.

There is slow steady winter rain that’s keeping temperatures hovering around forty degrees and the skies dark with winter gloom.  But the rain is good — for our groundwater, for our reservoirs, and it is good for the plants and animals that need this most essential resource to survive.  This rain is also filling our rivers – and I would wager – sending a good amount of water into the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir, along with a healthy amount of dirt.

Now, that dirt is slowly but surely filling the reservoir – each year, decreasing its capacity from 1 to 5 per cent since it was completed in 1969.  In another example of our human short-sightedness, like many public works installations of the era, the design life of this reservoir was only fifty years, at which time the reservoir would be filled to over 50% of its capacity.

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November 27, 2008

Walking through the South Fork Rivanna Water Treatment Plant brings a new appreciation for what it takes to turn river water into potable, safe drinking water.

 

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This show originally aired on November 27, 2007 on “The Rivanna Rambler,” a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net.

In late 1620, the God-fearing and intrepid band of Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, first stepped on the outer shores of Cape Cod – close, but not quite there, in their search for a home and religious freedom in the New World.  After an arduous 2-month voyage across the Atlantic, their stores of fresh water – and more importantly, the cider and beer on which most people relied for drink — were precariously low.

It took several forays down the sandy arm of the Cape to find rivers that spilled fresh water … and eventually, when they moved the Mayflower to what is now known as Plymouth Harbor, it was chosen as much for its protection from Cape Cod Bay as for the  fresh water flowing in to it from the Jones River and a “very sweet brook” that flowed beside the landing rock, a brook that William Bradford wrote had as “good water as can be drunk.”  He describe the water as “sweet,” perhaps an adjective hard for us to appreciate in our modern day, unless we remember that by the 1600s, many rivers – and city streets in the Old World – were already fouled by sewage and what we would today call gray-water from bathing and laundering — and were anything but sweet or safe to drink.

For our Thanksgiving gatherings today, perhaps the one thing on the table that costs little in money or time to prepare is the water that fills our drinking glasses. 

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November 20, 2008

One of the oldest living plants on earth, Ginkgo biloba, owes its longevity to its ability to tolerate a wide range of climatic condition.

 

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This show originally aired on November 20, 2007 on “The Rivanna Rambler,” a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net

Occasionally, I get a call from someone – usually my husband – to report a sighting that is noteworthy of investigating for this show.  So last week, when my husband called, asking for the Rivanna Rambler in a whiny, pinched voice, I knew another tip was on its way.

“I want to report a tree,” the voice said.

I pretended it was a crank call.  “What kind of tree?  Who Is this?”

“A tree with leaves falling off of it.”

“What kind of tree?”  Hey, leaves were falling everywhere around town as the cold air and shorter days were finally forcing autumn’s leafy splendor to the ground.

“Gink-go.” The voice said.

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